Research · October 2015 doi: 10. 13140/RG

b) Testing Reading 
There will be four skills that can be tested deal with language proficiency. If 
we deal with testing of reading then we may involve speaking and listening 
because when someone is tested in reading such as reading aloud then s/he seems 
to speak and listen to some items that will be tested such as the intonation, sterss, 
sounds, applying phonics, etc. Testing reading seems to be very easy at first 
glance but it would be very difficult when trying to conduct at various level and 
types of the tests. Hughes said (2003) that the basic problem is that receptive 
skills exercises (reading and listening) does not necessarily manifest itself 
directly in the overt behaviour because when people write and speak, we can see 
and hear but when people read and listen, we often have nothing to observe. 
There are some considerations to be involved when doing the test of reading and 
those should be put into account such as what to test and assess, types of test, 
how to test, and when to test.
In doing test of reading, it is urged to decide what to assess so that we can 
determine the type of the test appropriately to take out. After deciding the first 
step, tester should identify the level of testee and the ages because each level of 
ages has different ability concerns reading ability. Preparation for expeditious 
reading test will be the tester’s ability in how to test whether it will be skimming, 
search reading, and or scanning (Hughes, 2003). Mohamad (1999) said that when 
tester is preparing the assessment, s/he may go through some of the 
considerations such as ensuring that tester selects an appropriate text, making 
sure that the language used in the text is suitably pitched to his/her students' 

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proficiency, and scrutinising the text to ensure that the information in each 
paragraph is tested. 
Dealing with the operation or the preparation of the test, Hughes further 
suggests careful reading operation as follow: 
1. Identifying proniminal reference. 
2. Identifying discourse markers. 
3. Interpreting complex sentences. 
4. Interpreting topic sentences. 
5. Outlining logical organisation of a text. 
6. Outlining the development of an argument. 
7. Distinguishing general statements from examples. 
8. Identifying explicitly stated main ideas. 
9. Identifying implicitly stated main ideas. 
10. Recognizing writer’s intention. 
11. Recognizing the attitudes and emotions of the writer. 
12. Identifying addressee or audience for a text. 
13. Identifying what kind of text is involved (e.g. editorial, diary, etc.) 
14. Distinguishing fact from opinion. 
15. Distinguishing hypothesis from fact. 
16. Distinguishing fact from rumour or hearsay. 
After making preparation, then a tester should be better to make some inferences 
such as the following: 
1. Inferring the meaning of an unknown word from context. 
2. Making propositional informational inferences, answering questions 
beginning with who, when, and what. 
3. Making 
propositional 
explanatory 
inferences 
concerned 
with 
motivation, cause, consequence and enablement, answering questions 
beginning with why and how. 
4. Making pragmatic inferences. 

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Notes: Propositional inferences are those which do not depend on information 
from outside the text. 
Example: Fernandes and Mukhlis Rahman are in class B. Based on the 
sentence, we can infer that Fernandes is Mukhlis Rahman’s classmate or 
vise versa. 
Pragmatic inferences are those where we have to combine information 
from the text which knowledge from aoutside the text. 
Example: It took me only thirty minutes by motorcycle to get from
 
Bantimurung to Pettarani. We can infer that s/he rode very quickly 
because as we know that Bantimurung and Pettarani are not close by 
each other. 
The next is concerning texts to be considered. Hughes (2003) recommended that 
the text that candidates are expected to be able to deal with can be specified 
along a number of parameters as follow: 
1. Text type; such as text books, handouts, articles (in newspapaers, 
magazines, and journals), poems or verse, encyclopaedia entries, 
dictionary entries, leaflets, letters, forms, diary, maps or plans, 
advertisements, postcards, timetables, novels (extracts) and short stories, 
reviews, manual computer Help systems, notices and signs. 
2. Text forms; include Description (impressionistic descriptions & 
technical descriptions), Exposition (definitions, explications, outlines, 
summaries, and text interpretations), Argumentation (comments & 
formal argumentations), Instruction (personal instructions, practical 
instructions, and statutory instructions), and Narration (stories, jokes, 
reports: biographical notes, news, & historical accounts). 
3. Graphic features; include tables, charts, diagrams, cartoons, and 
illustrations. 

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4. Topics; could be listed or defined in general way such as non-technical 
or non-specialist or in relation to a set of candidates whose background 
is known. In the other word, the topic should be familiar to the students. 
5. Style; might be specified in terms of formality. 
6. Intended readership; can be quite specific such as native speaking 
science undergraduate students, professionals, etc. This can also be 
more general such as young native speakers, EFL students, ESL 
students, etc. 
7. Lenght; is usually expressed in number of words. This should be vary 
according to the level of candidates. 
8. Readability; is an objective. Teachers just measure the difficulty of the 
text to read.
9. Range of vocabulary; may be indicated by a complete list of words and 
it depends on indications of frequency in the learners’ dictionary. 
10. Range of grammar; could be a list of structures, may be a reference to 
those to be found in a course book or may be a parts of a grammar of a 
language. 
The next important thing to be considered is the level of candidates’ 
performance. This should be found out to deal with determining the test or types 
of the test and the test itself could be used to determine the level. The level of 
performance means how candidates perform by comparison with each other 
(Hughes, 2003). He further stated that the best way to proceed is to use the test 
task themselves to define the level. So, the tester should know whether the 
candidates/testees are in low level skill, middle level skill, and or higher level 
skill. 
The next is about selecting the text. In selecting the text, it is important to 
know the candidates’ ability in reading comprehension includes level of 
performance. Hughes (2003) said that the successful choice of the text depends 

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on experience, judgement, and a certain amount of common sense. He 
recommended some considerations as follow: 
1. Keeping specifications constantly in mind and try to select as 
representattive a sample as possible. Do not repeatedly select texts of a